Hysterical Hysteria Ep. 1: Hysteria—A Catch-All Diagnosis Used to Control Women

Hosts Sara and Gina introduce their podcast Hysterical Hysteria, explaining they met while training as genitourinary teaching associates who use their bodies to teach breast and pelvic exams, and that the show supports women, those who identify as women, and those assigned female at birth, with humor and serious discussion plus trigger warnings about assault and violence. Their first episode examines “hysteria,” describing its historical use as a patriarchal catch-all diagnosis for women, its Greek root meaning uterus, and its removal from the DSM only in 1980. They review purported symptoms and “treatments” (including marital sex, pregnancy, childbirth, and abusive “rest cures”), trace beliefs from Egypt, Greek philosophers, Romans, Christianity, Charcot’s asylum demonstrations, and Freud’s conversion disorder, and recount Marie (“Queen of Hysteria”), later thought to have psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. They connect hysteria to modern PTSD and current harms to women, then share where to find and contact the show.

00:00 Content Warning

00:45 Casual Catch Up

01:42 Workday Chaos

02:37 Birthday Week Curse

04:07 How We Met

05:41 Podcast Mission

07:13 Naming The Show

07:45 Trigger Warning Again

09:33 Hysteria Word Trauma

11:11 Patriarchy Control

14:50 Symptoms Explained

21:01 Treatments And Abuse

24:30 Meaning And DSM

26:37 Ancient Origins

29:07 Greek Philosophy Misogyny

31:09 Sexist Double Standards

32:22 Hippocrates And Healers

33:49 Miscarriage And Menopause Blame

35:28 Saints Satan And Exorcisms

38:30 Bad Air And Lazy Women

39:22 Charcot Asylum Spectacles

42:11 Freud And Modern Progress

43:40 Marie Queen Of Hysteria

56:09 Trauma Reframed As PTSD

57:01 Reclaiming Hysterical

59:31 Goodbyes And Contact Info